Do Rami Levi and Yafiz Products Make it in to Gaza?

The other day at work in Yafiz, the Rami Levi clothing store, a customer pointed out various apparel and told me their prices in Ramallah.  I'd been wondering why so many of our good customers are Arabs.  The women don't buy their scarves from us, because they're less expensive in Ramallah.  But they do buy baby clothes and fashionable clothes including men's jackets.  One once asked if an item had been made in China, so I read the tiny Hebrew lettering which confirmed that his guess was right.

Yes, in Ramallah and the smaller towns and villages in Judea and Samaria quite a few people have closets full of Israeli clothes and pantries full of Israeli manufactured food.  Gazans aren't supposed to do that.  Do their cousins from Judea and Samaria bring them presents from Rami Levi and Yafiz, like we used to get from America?

I don't know where the products sold in Ramallah, even in their mall, come from.  A few years ago, there was news that H & O opened in the mall, but I don't know today's situation.  I just see lots of happy, satisfied Arab customers leaving Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin with bulging bags.  And there are many more Arabs pushing overflowing shopping carts full of products they apparently can't buy locally, certainly not at Rami Levi prices.

Many of the Arabs who shop at Yafiz are educated and/or used to foreign travel and speak to me in English, not Hebrew.  It's rare for an Arab woman to know Hebrew; the Arabs who speak Hebrew are men.  Sometimes my lack of Arabic is a problem, but I do my best to communicate with pantomime and written numbers.

When I accepted the job in Yafiz, I had no idea that I'd be spending a good portion of my working day with Arabs.  I just needed an easy job which would be easy to get to and return home from.  I don't consider my strong belief that we Jews should be living in and ruling all of the Land of Israel as anti-Arab.  If they are willing to live peacefully with us and obey our laws, they can stay.

This Land is Our Land, historic Jewish Land.  The Bible documents our ancient history, and we Jews are descended from those very same Biblical characters.  The Jewish religion is the same Jewish religion as formulated in the Bible.  In another month we will celebrate the holiday of Purim.  In Shiloh we celebrate a double Purim, two days, two feasts and four readings of Megilat Ester, The Scroll of Esther.  Each year when I listen carefully to the narrative, I'm amazed, impressed anew, when I hear the list of commandments of how we are to celebrate the Jewish victory over Haman.  Here we are in the Twenty-First Century, thousands of years after Esther, Mordechai, King Achashverosh and Haman lived, and we are still celebrating as depicted in that Biblical Book. 

Our ancient, Biblical enemies have long been destroyed, but we still live and thrive, Baruch Hashem, thank G-d.  I see it at work every day I go.  And no doubt, when we return again to our ancient city of Gaza, Rami Levi will open a branch there, too.